I'm traveling with 4 other adults in mid-August, and we are planning to take the train from Budapest to Prague (2nd class). Our contact in Hungary said the online price is 19 euros, which is consistent with what I found on the Mav website (http://www.mav-start.hu/english/index.php). However, when we try to book online, the payment portion isn't in English, and when I translate with Google, I'm still not clear on how to book. Our contact in Hungary also said that ticket buying can be unpredictable, so advance purchase of tickets is recommended. In my internet digging, I've found a couple people who have said that it's not possible to buy Budapest to Prague train tickets online (other than through RailEurope and pay close to $200 USD)? Is this still true? This is our only train ride of the trip, so rail passes don't make sense for us. Any advice? We'll arrive in Budapest two days before we want to take the train to Prague, and we'll have someone with us who speaks Hungarian while we're in Budapest.
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Chicago/Rural WI
811 posts
Hi Erin, As you are finding, the MAV website can be tricky to navigate. I read the TripAdvisor.com forums from time to time, and what I've learned is that many people from outside Hungary have difficulty in booking advance tickets online (directly through MAV). As you've found, not only is there no English interface (yet), but I believe you also have to register with the site before you are able to buy tickets online. And even if you manage to figure out the registration, MAV used to only allow online purchases from people who had a Hungarian bank account, thusly eliminating most foreign traveler's access to booking online in advance. This year, however, they are supposed to allow foreign bank transactions, although I'm not sure if they've implemented these allowances yet. Is there any way your Hungarian contact could buy the tickets for you? If not, you may want to consider posting this question on the Budapest TripAdvisor.com forum I've linked below, or maybe do a little digging around on that forum to see if your question has already been answered. There is a regular poster there named GCEK who seems to be an accomplished rail expert for this part of the world, and I would heed his advice. http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g274887-i263-Budapest.html Good luck!